Episode 1013

It’s Prospect Week at FanGraphs, so our scouting department shares how the prospect list sausage is made before we hear from a fellow ranker who is now on the team side.

• To start things off, lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen is joined by contributor Tess Taruskin to celebrate making it through Prospect Week and to shine a light on how the Top 100 was made. The duo walk through a ranking exercise, using a group of relief-risk pitchers to show how they would evaluate comparable players. Eric and Tess also discuss some of their favorite players on the list, including Addison Barger and Miguel Bleis, and how nowadays they sometimes have to watch players’ TikTok accounts for the best scouting footage available. [3:44]
• After that, David Laurila welcomes John Manuel, former editor-in-chief at Baseball America and current scout for the Minnesota Twins. John tells David how different prospect lists look now that he is on the inside of a front office, as well as how much clubs actually pay attention to them. The pair also discuss the origins of prospect lists and how BA founder Allan Simpson deserves credit for originating the exercise many years ago. Finally, John reflects on some of his own evaluations on players such as Félix Hernández, Joe Mauer, Mookie Betts, Justin Verlander, and Freddie Freeman. [43:22]

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Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hour 36 minute play time.)

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